Assembly Speaker Marilyn Kirkpatrick, D-North Las Vegas, is expected to take critics head on today at the first public hearing of her proposed entertainment and admissions tax, an 8 percent levy on everything from concerts and sporting events to gym memberships and strip clubs. Chief among them is the Electric Daisy Carnival, the massive outdoor music festival that draws an estimated 345,000 attendees to Las Vegas each summer.

Nevada Assemblyman Joe Hogan, D-Las Vegas, introduced a bill to legalize and tax marijuana Monday. Under the bill, Nevadans older than 21 could legally possess up to one ounce of marijuana for recreational use and up to six marijuana plants.

Sure, proposed legislation is debated both in public hearings and behind closed doors in the Legislative Building itself. But new laws are also crafted — or amended — over fine wine at Bella Fiore, martinis at Adele’s or shots of whiskey at Mo & Sluggos.

Nevada’s status in the presidential race this year perhaps could be more aptly described as a “firewall” than a “battleground.” That fact was evident in the way both Obama and Romney fit Nevada into their overall electoral vote strategy.

If the conservative nonprofit group Americans for Prosperity is poised to be a serious player in the turnout game for Republican candidates this November, it didn’t prove itself in the primary election last week.

In hindsight, Republican congressional candidate Danny Tarkanian should have “put a microscope” on a 2007 land deal that went bad and has now left him and his family on the hook for a $17 million judgment, his lawyer said Wednesday.